"There's an intent to say, okay, there are several hundred of us there, we can all get a meal," Gosford told The Washington Post.

The project kicked off way back in 2011, with Gosford putting out a media release calling for people to contribute their accounts of "birds carrying fire sticks" to the study in 2013.

"Birds and fire have long been linked in the Australian Aboriginal landscape and there are many accounts of birds – particularly black kites – carrying firesticks from the front line of wild-fires to spread those fires," he said.

But even back in 2011 it was kind of old news, with the fire-starting trait being long-known to Aboriginal people in Australia's north.

"This behaviour, often represented in sacred ceremonies, is widely known to local people in the NT," the 2017 study says.

In his earlier writings for Crikey, Gosford noted a few early references to "fire hawks", pointing out the account of Waipuldanya (Phillip Roberts), from the Alawa language group from Roper River country, in the biography I, The Aboriginal.

"I have seen a hawk pick up a smouldering stick in its claws and drop it in a fresh patch of dry grass half a mile away, then wait with its mates for the mad exodus of scorched and frightened rodents and reptiles," he said.

"When that area was burnt out the process was repeated elsewhere.

"We call these fires Jarulan."

Back in 2016, Gosford told The Washington Post there was a great deal for us all to learn about our nation from its original custodians.

"There's an immense amount of Aboriginal knowledge of the birds in this country," he said.

"I firmly believe that for science and land management, if there was greater recognition of it, we’d be a much better place."